Urologist Appointment: This morning was also my hubby’s appointment with the urologist. The doctor first asked him about his health and our infertility journey. He reviewed the results of the previous tests that my husband had done – including the one done most recently this month. He said that the counts and everything aren’t bad and don’t really indicate that there’s any problems. During the examination part of it, he did find that my husband has what is called a varicocele (pronounced “very cold seal” – without the d”). It’s an enlarged vein – similar to a varicose vein. Having that vein can overheat things down there and could contribute to poor sperm quality or production. The doctor said that there is an outpatient surgery that could be done to tie off that vein. Although having that surgery isn’t guaranteed to fix anything, it would at least maybe rule out one more possible factor. The good news is that the surgery would also be covered by insurance. So our next steps are for my hubby to have that outpatient surgery – then we can see if it helps us get pregnant on our own. We will see!
Why didn't they find this sooner? You may be wondering why we didn’t have my hubby go to the urologist before we did all of the fertility treatments. For most male fertility issues (if any are found)– the recommended solution is to just do artificial inseminations or IVF. And since we were already ready to move down that path and his tests didn’t indicate any issues – we just went straight to the treatments. And I also don’t think that this vein really had any impact on why our IVF cycle or FET cycle didn’t work. We had embryos that were already fertilized – so his job was done. For whatever reason, the embryo and my uterus just didn’t mesh well. Anyway, I’m hopeful that maybe after this surgery – we will have a better chance at getting pregnant naturally. The hard part is that when you’re trying naturally – you never really know how far things are going in the process. And as we’ve learned, there are so many steps to getting pregnant! With the artificial insemination we tried, you don’t know if the sperm and egg ever met to become an embryo. But maybe they did and the embryo just didn’t attach. With IVF – you know that the embryo has been created – you just don’t know why it didn’t attach. So as we continue to try on our own – we never really know how far we’re getting in the process. But even if this surgery makes my hubby’s sperm stronger, it still doesn’t guarantee that it’s going to help my uterus accept the embryos. We will just have to hope for the best and see what happens!
Tonight I had to go to a work dinner and my hubby had his golf league, but we met up at my sister’s house to visit with her and her family. Although at first Wendel wanted his mommy to read him his “2 books” before bedtime, at the last minute I was able to convince him to choose me to get to do the honors. I read him his 2 books and then was rocking him for a little bit. His hand got caught in my shirt somehow and he asked me what was in my shirt. I told him that just my belly was in my shirt. Then he looked closer at my stomach and asked, “Oh, is there a baby in your belly?” I told him, “No, not yet.” He asked again, “Are you sure there’s not a baby in your belly?” I told him again, “Nope, no baby.” He doesn’t know how badly I wished he was right tonight!
Thought of the Day: All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. - Walt Disney